Etcetera

Dennis Fenton Joins Board of Trustees

Dennis M. Fenton, a manufacturing and biologics expert and
former executive vice president for Amgen, has been elected to The Scripps
Research Institute (TSRI) Board of Trustees.

In his 26-year career at Amgen, Fenton served in many
high-level positions, most recently as executive vice president from 2000 until
his retirement in 2008. At Amgen, his responsibilities spanned manufacturing,
quality, logistics, process development, engineering and operation services.
Prior to joining Amgen, he was a senior research scientist at Pfizer, In.,
where he studied productivity increases in bulk chemical fermentations, among
other topics.

A 1973 graduate of Manhattan College in Riverdale, NY,
Fenton was awarded a doctoral degree in microbiology from Rutgers University in
1977.

Fenton currently serves on the boards of four public
companies, Xenoport, Dendreon, Hospira and Kytheria Pharmaceuticals, and two
private companies, Napo and Genelux. He is also vice chair of the Board of
Trustees for the Keck Graduate Institute, a member of the Claremont Colleges in
Southern California. His current professional affiliations include membership
in the American Management Association, American Society for Microbiology,
Society for Industry Microbiology and American Chemical Society.

Scripps Florida has been awarded a $1 million grant by the
William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, a North Carolina-based philanthropic
foundation with an interest in education, in support of the institute's
education outreach programs in Palm Beach County. The four-year grant builds
upon several years of continuous Kenan Trust support, which has gradually
increased over the past seven years.

The new grant will provide funding through May 2017 for
several established programs that each year reach hundreds of students and
teachers from middle and high schools throughout Palm Beach County, as well as
college undergraduates from across the country. Programs also provide teaching
and mentoring experience to the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who
support the initiatives.

Education outreach efforts at Scripps Florida have also been
supported by generous gifts from the Mary and Robert Pew Public Education Fund,
the Quantum Foundation, as well as the Admiral's Cove Cares Charitable
Foundation, the BallenIsles Charities Foundation, and the Berlin Family
Foundation.

Suzanne Rzuczek, research associate in the Disney lab, has
received a two-year fellowship from the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation to
support her project, “Rational Design of Potent Compounds Targeting RNA in Myotonic
Dystrophy Type 1.”

Myotonic dystrophy is one of the inherited disorders called
muscular dystrophies. Most commonly manifesting in adulthood, the disorder is
characterized by progressive muscle wasting and weakness.

Wang-Yong Yang, research associate in the Disney lab,has been awarded a postdoctoral
fellowship for his project, “Design of small molecules to target r(CGG)
expansions as a therapeutic option for Fragile X Syndrome.” Renewable for a
second year, the grant is funded by the FRAXA Research Foundation.

Fragile X Syndrome is a genetic condition that causes a
range of developmental problems including learning disabilities and cognitive
impairment. According to FRAXA, it is
the most common inherited cause of intellectual disabilities and the most
common known genetic (“single gene”) cause of autism.